HK
Sai Kung
Seafood quays, hidden beaches and Hong Kong's wild back garden
Seafood quays, hidden beaches and Hong Kong's wild back garden
The seafront promenade is the town’s social heart, lined with fishmongers, sampans selling the day’s catch straight from tanks, and restaurants that will cook whatever you point at.
💡 Buy seafood from the boats, then take it to a nearby restaurant to cook for a small fee.
Boat tours from the pier weave among dramatic sea caves and cliffs of hexagonal volcanic rock columns, among the largest and best preserved of their kind on earth.
💡 Book a group boat at the pier; mornings usually have calmer seas.
Often called Hong Kong’s most beautiful beach, this remote crescent of white sand and turquoise surf sits on the Sai Kung Peninsula, reached by a scenic hike or a boat ride.
💡 It is a two-hour trail in; carry water and there are only simple beach shacks for food.
A short kaito hop from the pier, Sharp Island has a clear-water beach and, at low tide, a natural tombolo sandbar you can walk across to a smaller islet.
💡 Check tide times so you can cross the sandbar on foot.
The East Dam here shows off towering cliffs of folded volcanic columns beside a vast blue reservoir, a highlight of the MacLehose Trail’s coastal stretch.
💡 There is no public bus to the dam; share a taxi from Sai Kung town.
Sai Kung is synonymous with seafood. Pick live prawns, mantis shrimp, grouper or clams from the quayside tanks and have a restaurant steam or wok-fry them, or settle in at a promenade table for salt-and-pepper squid and cold beer. The town also has surprisingly good coffee shops, bakeries and Thai and Western cafes for post-hike refuelling.
Stroll the waterfront and fish market, then take a kaito to Sharp Island for a swim and a walk across the tombolo sandbar at low tide.
Join a boat tour to the hexagonal rock columns and sea caves of the UNESCO Geopark, or taxi out to the High Island East Dam.
Pick your dinner live from the quayside tanks and have a promenade restaurant cook it as the boats light up the bay.
Choose from the boats or market tanks, agree the price by weight, then pay a small cooking fee at a restaurant.
The Sharp Island sandbar and some beaches are best at low tide; check a tide table before you go.
The best beaches and Geopark views need walking; bring water, sun cover and sturdy shoes.
Green minibus 1A from Choi Hung or Diamond Hill MTR is the quickest way in from the city.
Get to Diamond Hill or Choi Hung, then transfer to a Sai Kung minibus.
Free
Door-to-door routing including New Territories buses and minibuses.
Free
Hong Kong Observatory app for tides, rain radar and typhoon warnings before a boat trip.
Free
Skyscraper-packed Central, neon Tsim Sha Tsui, the Big Buddha on Lantau, seafood-and-hiking Sai Kung and breezy Stanley — five very different sides of Hong Kong.